What is a chiropractor?

Chiropractic has a rich history dating back to ancient civilisations. The ancient Greeks, Egyptians and Chinese cultures applied early forms of manual therapy to promote health and well-being. The modern era of chiropractic began in the late 19th century. Dr Daniel David Palmer is often considered the founder of chiropractic care. In 1895, Dr Palmer performed the very first chiropractic adjustment on a man who was deaf, and noted to his surprise that the man regained his hearing after the treatment. Originally, Dr Palmer thought he had found the cure for deafness with his techniques, but it later emerged that not all deaf people benefited from his treatments. What did stand out, however, was that all these people experienced improvement in completely different areas: their nagging back pain disappeared, they suddenly no longer suffered from headaches, they recovered faster from infectious diseases and so on. This formed the basis of the idea behind chiropractic: when the nervous system is in optimal health, the body is better able to repair itself. This led to the development of chiropractic as its own medical profession. Chiropractic quickly grew in popularity and spread throughout the United States and the rest of the world. In 1897, the first chiropractic school was established, and in 1913, the state of Kansas enacted the first chiropractic legislation. This recognised chiropractic as a legal profession.